Norman and Saxon, written in 1911, ostensibly about the period in England around 1100 A.D. when the French Normans had conquered the Anglo-Saxons, but seemingly evergreen."My son," said the Norman Baron, "I am dying, and you will be heirTo all the broad acres in England that William gave me for my shareWhen we conquered the Saxon at Hastings, and a nice little handful it is.But before you go over to rule it I want you to understand this:--"The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.When he stands like an ox in the furrow with his sullen set eyes on your own,And grumbles, 'This isn't fair dealing,' my son, leave the Saxon alone.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
The Democrats don't read Kipling
He's been out of fashion for decades with the "smart set", which is too bad - he could have given Obama some advice that would have helped stave off the last disastrous elections:
There is a lot of truth in that work. Kipling was a keen observer of people. And Saxons are "more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed."
ReplyDeleteBut, as many others have pointed out, between the disdain with which the Ruling Class treats everyone else, the cost of heath care skyrocketing, and the entitlement attitude of so many people, roughly half of those that voted had clearly decided not to suffer any longer.
Fair disclosure, I'm an anarchist (no rulers, not no rules, thank you for understanding Greek), so I do not chose to vote and be complicit in the biggest threat to our safety and prosperity (the government). I had quite a few friends who said they supported Trump, though, and their reasons were generally one of the three mentioned above. I believe they will be disappointed, and some of them even seem to expect that, but they wanted to send a message of "Stop it! Treat me like an adult, dammit!"
And a few pretty much said that it was, to them, a choice between a Trump victory or hunkering down and waiting for the civil war they expected to follow "Madam President".
Sullen set eyes, indeed.